>>> i'm wondering if it's maybe a northeast thing I'd bet it varies not only somewhat geographically, but also over a timeline. What I mean by over a timeline is, that as women have become more visible in certain sports, many men have left the sports - just a few decades ago, dressage was a man's sport, because of its military roots. Now, most dressage riders you'll see are women, at local , national and at international competition levels. Equestrian sports are only one of a couple where men and women compete equally under exactly the same set of rules at the Olympic level...and women stand up quite well to the competition. Apparently a lot of men don't like that.
That there are more women than men involved in the USA with horses is pretty much a given on a national level though. Jane Savoie is from New England - MA originally I think, now living in Florida and VT. Stacy Westfall is from Ohio, I think Lynn Palm was originally from the Midwest, now living in Michigan and Florida. At the clinic I attended last week, organized on a national level, they had one session called. "My love or my husband versus my love for my horses." In fact, Jane's husband was manning (cute word, given the topic, huh?) her booth, and my buddy and I actually had a chat with him (a New Englander) on this subject. He said was ok to go riding on a packing type vacation out west, but overall, the horse business is largely Jane's baby. Lynn Palm's husband is an equestrian in his own right though, and Stacy Westfall's husband is also a western trainer/competitor. It's an almost universal theme in national magazines, and on these lists. I live in NC, but this part of NC is not really a southern community any more - we have many more non-southerners living here now that we have natives, thanks largely to Charlotte being the country's second largest financial city, second only to NYC. It's a fact of life here, with riders that have ended up here from all parts of the country - Cary gets lots of female attention when he occasionally accompanies me to a tack store or event since men are relatively rare at those venues. Also, my friend graduated from a very "classical" English riding/horsemanship program at Virginia Intermont about 1984, I think. She said that her class was overwhelmingly female, and the horsemanship students were from all over the country - maybe about 10-15% male at that time. You could check and see what the percentages are at the other schools with noted equestrian programs, like University of Findlay, etc. But look at the equestrian programs, not the overall enrollment. I think even vet schools have a larger percentage of female than male students now, whereas I never heard of a female vet when I was a kid. Maybe Laree knows that, since her daughter just got accepted. Is Annie expecting to meet a lot of guys at school...? :) Karen Thomas, NC No virus found in this outgoing message. Checked by AVG Free Edition. Version: 7.5.467 / Virus Database: 269.8.0/817 - Release Date: 5/24/2007 4:01 PM "The greatest enemy of the truth very often is not the lie- deliberate, contrived and dishonest -- but the myth -- persistent, persuasive and unrealistic." "All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident." ~ Arthur Schopenhauer [] The video every Icelandic Horse owner should have: http://IceHorses.net/video.html [] Lee Ziegler http://leeziegler.com [] Liz Graves http://lizgraves.com [] Lee's Book Easy Gaited Horses http://tinyurl.com/7vyjo [] IceHorses Map http://www.frappr.com/IceHorses [] IceHorses ToolBar http://iceryder.ourtoolbar.com/ Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/IceHorses/ <*> Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional <*> To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/IceHorses/join (Yahoo! ID required) <*> To change settings via email: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
